George Washington

If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

It is well known that when I was in the service of my country, I never spared myself; and I do not mean to do it now.

I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the whole tribe of office-hunters and place-seekers.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

However, political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

I conceive that the great weight of the obligation which lies upon me to render justice to every man, and to every public body, requires that I should not be silent, when I see a measure taken, which, in my opinion, is pregnant with the greatest mischiefs.

The foundations of our empire were not laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition; but at an epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

Experience teaches us that men are often so much governed by what they are accustomed to see and practice, that the most simple and obvious improvements, in the most ordinary occupations, are adopted with hesitation, reluctance, and by slow gradations.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

The consideration that human happiness and the preservation of our republican institutions are so essentially linked together, that there is no room for doubt or hesitation.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth, and the Son of Righteousness in triumph amongst all nations.

Religious toleration is not only a right, but a duty, and the glory of the American people.

I shall rely confidently on that Providence which has hitherto preserved and been bountiful to me, and not doubt that with the continuance of its aid I shall be enabled to discharge with fidelity such duties as may be assigned to me.

If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work?

I consider the War as over, and I am preparing to return to that domestic walk of life, in which I have been so long happy.